Dementia - Eating and drinking guidelines

Currently i've been working with a few patients who have late stage dementia and are developing dysphagia. I've been researching some general eating/drinking advice for patients with dementia:

• Try to keep the eating environment calm and free from distractions.
• Feed at times of the day when the person most alert.
• When giving meals encourage positioning which is most comfortable for the individual and facilitates safe swallowing.Consider appropriate nutritional supplements in addition to high calorie meals, snacks and drinks.
• Where possible facilitate self-feeding (hand over hand support).
• Prompt/ give small mouthfuls/sips.
• Allow the person to see the food/drink and warn them what is happening e.g. this is apple juice, i'm going to give you a sip.
• Use foods/dinks that are strongly flavoured e.g. cranberry juice/ lemon juice, or those that are hot or ice cold as these can stimulate a stronger swallow response.
• If the person does not open their mouth, try: - verbal prompts to open their mouth - tactile cues to help them open their mouth by resting the spoon/ spout on their lower lip.
• Ensure the person has swallowed before offering another mouthful.
• If the swallow does not happen, try the following: - verbal prompts to swallow - gently massaging under the chin in a front back motion as this may encourage a swallow - an empty spoon. This may help to stimulate a further swallow as they will think they have had another mouthful of food.